Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories has developed an injectable antibiotic called Tigecycline. It can be used to treat resistant pathogens -- bacteria that are immune to standard antibiotics. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has changed the rules for measuring...
POLITICS
Pilots and Guns
In a stunning reversal, California's liberal Senator Barbara Boxer has come out in favor of allowing airline pilots to carry guns if they wish, while the Bush administration opposes it. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has passed a bill to permit pilots to...
The Democrats’ Bad, Bad Boy
If Rep. James P. Moran of Virginia were a Republican, he'd be a household name by now -- right up there in the infamous conservative pantheon with Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and Newt Gingrich. He'd be lambasted by leading opinion-makers for his greed, hypocrisy and...
The Soft Bigotry of President Bush?
"The soft bigotry of low expectations." President George W. Bush once used this expression to chastise America's education establishment for the underperformance of minorities, specifically blacks and Latinos. Bush urged teachers and administrators to apply high...
Killing Capitalism in Order to Save It
Earlier this year big institutional investors were blithely telling themselves that Enron was just an exception. After all, it was a case of outright fraud. How often does that happen? And sure, every company cooks the books a little. But we expect it of them and make...
Bill Amendment: Just Another Veiled Attack on Private Property
The recently passed amendment to the Senate's Sarbanes bill preventing corporations from making loans to their officers is just another step in the socialization of private property in America -- and must be fought on that basis. The concept of property inherently...
Practice What You Print: NY Times on Stock Options
There's a game of "can you top this?" going on, with the Senate, the House, and the White House all trying to one-up each other to see who can talk the toughest tough-talk about corporate crooks. The media sits on the sidelines, egging on the politicians, lavishing...
Living Through a Bear Market
As the stock market falls for the third straight year -- something that hasn't happened since 1941 -- I get asked three questions: 1. When will it end? 2. Why is it happening? 3. What should I do? The third question is by far the most important, and the answer is...
What Is Killing The Stock Market? Government Regulation
Politicians and economic analysts are shocked. They have told us for weeks that the stock market is crashing because of low "investor confidence" in response to a "crime wave" of corporate fraud--made possible by "a climate of lax regulation" and "the lure of heady...
Prescription Drug Benefits Violate the Rights of Drug Companies
As both Democratic and Republican proposals to provide prescription drug benefits for the elderly failed in the Senate, members of both parties vowed to try to reach a compromise and get a bill passed as early as next week. Any such bill, if approved, would be a...
China as a Model for ‘Sustainable Development’?
There's an old maxim in moral philosophy that says, "the ends never justify the means." Of course, lots of utilitarians think that is so much moral posturing and nonsense. They proffer hypothetical arguments to debunk that maxim, such as: "If stealing a loaf of bread...
The ACLU vs. American Liberty
The American Civil Liberties Union recently released a white paper admitting that it is not particularly concerned with defending free speech. But not to worry, this does not make the ACLU purposeless: according to the paper, the leaders in the ACLU derive just as...
Stock Market: Cheap and Unstable
As of yesterday's close, the S&P 500 has lost 46.2% on a total return basis (including receipt of dividends) since the top in 2000. That exceeds the loss of 45.1% in the 1973-74 bear market -- but it's still shy of the 49.9% lost in the 1937-38 bear market. If the...
Voucher Backlash
Opponents of school vouchers have grown desperate in the wake of the Supreme Court's refusal to outlaw vouchers as violations of the First Amendment. And desperation seldom produces clarity of thought. It was particularly painful to read an outburst by Cynthia Tucker...
Holding Syria Accountable
Following the horrific events of September 11, President George W. Bush bravely asserted his administration's policy toward terrorism. The United States, from here out, was to hold not only terrorist organizations, but also state sponsors of terrorism, responsible for...
Naming Names in “Africa-America”
Did anyone ever call Franklin D. Roosevelt a "Dutch American" or Dwight Eisenhower a "German American"? It would have been resented, not only by them and their supporters, but by Americans in general. These men were Americans -- not hyphenated Americans or half...
Clearing the Way for Real Airport Security
Did you hear the one about the 87-year-old grandmother who had her knitting needles taken away by airport security? They were afraid she was going to knit an Afghan. That is just one of many jibes at the fraudulent airport security measures adopted since September 11....
Rebuilding the WTC: Anything Less Is Suicide
As both an architect and architectural historian--that is, as someone who cares about buildings nearly as much as I care about my friends and family--I felt like I lost an old friend on September 11 when the towers of the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground....
The Problem of Public Schools: In Search of the “Certified” Teacher
Most discussions of the problems of American education have an air of utter unreality because they avoid addressing the most fundamental and intractable problem of our public schools -- the low quality of our teachers. There is no point expecting teachers to teach...
Eby-Brown Company: Guilty of the Crime of Charging Lower Prices to Consumers
If the Ninth Circuit has become a haven for rogue anti-patriotic judges, as many politicians claim, than the Seventh Circuit has become the refuge of the business-hating justices. Last month the Chicago-based Seventh Circuit found that companies could be found guilty...
Wake Up, Mr. President!
George W. Bush gave a pretty good speech back in September, and also at the time of the State of the Union in January. In those speeches, he outlined a principled defense against terrorism. The question, of course, was always: Does he mean it? It's not looking good...
Call Acts of Terrorism By Their Rightful Name
On the 4th of July, an Egyptian immigrant to the United States who believes in wild conspiracy theories about Jews, is known for his great "hate for Israel," and has possible ties to al Qaeda, armed himself to the teeth and assaulted the Israeli airline counter at Los...
Putting the War Effort on Defense
Congress has no problem shelling out $6.5 billion for mass-transit systems that fewer and fewer Americans use each year. It manages to fully fund Medicare, despite $23 billion in waste and fraud each year. It pays farmers -- mostly mega-corporations, actually -- $1.3...
Airport Security: The Idiots Rule
We have no less than unadulterated idiots in charge of airport security. You say, "What is it this time, Williams?" Last month, while boarding a Midwest Express flight to Milwaukee, former Vice President Al Gore was pulled aside at the boarding gate. He was frisked...
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